The virtual explosion of technical advances in microelectronics, digital computers and software have changed the face of modern society. In fact, these technological advances have become so important and pervasive that this explosion is sometimes referred to as "the information revolution." Through telephone lines, cables, satellite communications and the like, information and resources are ever increasingly being accessed and shared. For instance, computers are often connected to one another to form a network, such as a local area network ("LAN") or a wide area network ("WAN"), wherein the computers communicate between one another and share resources. While increased interconnectivity is a desirable and powerful utilization of the technological explosion, it also poses a challenge with respect to security. This is particularly true when measured against the ever increasing ability and creativity of saboteurs, hackers and agents attempting to access sensitive information.
Particularly with computer networks, but also with other computer configurations, a variety of different resources can be accessed and used. For example, a given computer may require access to a database, an electronic mail ("e-mail") system, a management system, and other programs or resources. Very often, however, each computer resource has its own unique security system that operates independent of the other resources. Building on the prior example, the database may have its own password system, while the e-mail and management service would have a different password system. As such, someone needing access to each of these computer resources would be required to remember passwords corresponding to each of the resources. Moreover, when that user wanted to access a resource, the user would be required to perform the steps of whatever authentication routine is required of that resource, thus wasting time and energy.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus where multiple computer resources can be secured and accessed without the attendant problems in the prior art.